Outgoing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had long been at odds with President Trump on key issues in the Middle East, from the intra-GCC dispute between Qatar and other member states, to the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and the Iran nuclear deal. How will his replacement impact these and other regional policies?

Iranian leaders blame neighboring countries’ water management policies, the presence of U.S. forces in the region, and climate changes for Iran’s growing environmental problems, yet they largely overlook corruption and mismanagement, as well as government policies responsible for the deteriorating crisis across the country, writes Ahmad Majidyar.

Outgoing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had long been at odds with President Trump on key issues in the Middle East, from the intra-GCC dispute between Qatar and other member states, to the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and the Iran nuclear deal. How will his replacement impact these and other regional policies?

Iranian leaders blame neighboring countries’ water management policies, the presence of U.S. forces in the region, and climate changes for Iran’s growing environmental problems, yet they largely overlook corruption and mismanagement, as well as government policies responsible for the deteriorating crisis across the country, writes Ahmad Majidyar.

When President Donald Trump announced that the United States would move its embassy to Jerusalem on December 6, 2017, he effectively recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. This essay examines India's response to this development, in the broader context of its evolving relationship with Israel and with the United States.

Japan’s energy policy is at a turning point. Seven years ago, the country experienced a devastating earthquake and tsunami that severely damaged the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The accident led to the shutdown of all 54 of Japan’s nuclear power reactors and to a revision of the country’s energy policy. Japan’s long-term energy policy will reach an important landmark if, as expected, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) finalizes the revamped national energy strategy in the coming months. At the center of deliberations and debate is the issue of how to achieve a “balanced energy mix.” This article discusses Japan’s struggle to attain this goal and how the country’s energy relations with the Middle East have evolved since the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident.

This article examines the genesis and traces the development of Hizbut Tahrir in Indonesia (HTI). It argues that HTI’s longevity and its appeal among Indonesian Muslims has been largely attributable to the organization’s ability to transmit a message that does not directly challenge the state’s ideology of Pancasila, though its agenda remains firmly anchored in a commitment to establish a sharia law-based caliphate.

On the surface, the Chinese reaction to the US decision to effectively recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel was clear. Following President Trump’s announcement to transfer the US embassy to the Holy City on December 6, 2017. Several days later, China voted with every other member on the UN Security Council (UNSC) to uphold the international consensus and previous UN decisions on Jerusalem. By going against world opinion, the US arguably looked out of step in relation to the conflict. By contrast, China’s alignment with international public opinion gave it the aura of a potential mediator. This essay considers whether Beijing has the political will and capacity to make a significant positive impact on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

This essay examines the humanitarian negotiation of protection in the Syrian refugee response. Focusing on the case of Lebanon, the essay presents three examples of how the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has negotiated refugee protection: by avoiding the refugee label, by establishing the contested notion of “protection space,” and by suspending refugee registration at the request of the Lebanese government.

Over the last decade, many in the international community have asked how, as a country with the largest population of Muslims — 255 million in 2016 — Indonesia has successfully dealt with terrorism relative to other countries in the Muslim world. As the international community struggles to solve the problem of religion-inspired terrorism, experts, academics, and senior government officials alike have identified Indonesia as a country from which the world can learn lessons about how to defeat terrorists and build democracy. However, analysis of counterterrorism in Indonesia since Reformasi in 1998 suggests it may premature to draw conclusions about success and failure. Where lessons can be learned, many lie in the actions of the Indonesian government, the societal factors that have enabled it, and the precarious state of “success” against terrorism.